Wednesday, 20 October 2010

Sam and I were the two out of our group who put the moodboard together. We skimmed through various empire magazines as well as others and discussed themes and pictures in them that linked to the narrative of our film. Mood boards work off peoples own connotaions and different people interperate different images to represent different things. Alot of our images and words represent the anger and upset of our characters lack of acceptance by society by some people. Things such as "slate" and "keep cool" we imagined our character to be saying and thinking as people judge him 0n his phobia and the way in which he also almost isolated himself from society. Along with the words there are the visuals of the fists to connote his anger and frustration as well. The fists are also obviously hands and fit with the theme of our film which revolves around his phobia. My favourite image on the board is the

Wednesday, 13 October 2010

For our ancillary tasks for our short film we as a group have chosen to create both a teaser poster for the mockumentary and a radio advert. The idea we had for a radio advert however was to advertise the mockumentary in the form of an interview between a radio presenter and either someone playing the director of the mockumentary or the presenter myself. This could include things such as sound extracts from the short film of parts of interviews to advertise and encourage people to watch the mockumentary. This could also be an opportunity to spoof a radio presenter for example and research and portray over excited dj presenters to make the radio interview amusing to fit in with our mockumentary the idea of the radio interview would be real but the same as the mockumentary the humour would be suttle and the audience would be encouraged to

An idea that I talked about in an earlier post was to use the Borat teaser poster as a reference for our own poster. With Borat being of the same genre film as ours it is a relevant poster to work off of. Although it will be difficult to get the point across of the mockumentary as our character with the phobia obviously isn't as widely recognised as Borat. As a group we think replicating the simplicity of the poster is a good idea and will suit our genre. We are thinking of having the same sort of high angle shot and concentrating on the main character of the mockumentary Simon. As he is not known we will make it blatently obvious about the humour through his facial expression and the props such as the oven gloves.

Friday, 24 September 2010

In our group we have chosen to go for the choice of creating a short film and our genre that we have all agreed on is a mockumentary. This would mean using traits of a documentary such as voice overs and varied shots of the person being documented such as mid shots for interviewing and shots of people who don't want to be recognised of them in the dark. Montages of things that the person being documented about would do in their day to day life would be needed to reassure the viewer that what they are watching is of a documentary type of genre though, subconsciously almost, they will pick up on the humour of the topic and laugh at the seriousness of the mockumentary but only if all the traits and conventions are done well will the humour come through . This would also include imterviews between the interviewer who at the moment is going to be played by me and the boy who has the phobia of hands, and his family. As it is a mockumentary humour is essential but not jokes as such the humour we as a group are aiming for is more suttle and for the audience to pick up on the sheer stupidness of the phobia rather than making loads of jokes about how it affects his life.

Wednesday, 15 September 2010

Sign language is one film that I found and is a example of a good short film and in my opinion, it's very hard hitting and clever. I like the style and humour in the way in which it is almost tongue in cheek though still has a hard hitting story line. The first person aspect in which the main character is telling the story is a very popular technique used throughout many short films and one that I feel our group may look into as at the moment we are leaning towards a mocumentary sort of short filmin which the narrative would be more important and would get the point across alot more than the visual which should be suttle and humorous at the same time. Short scenes and a fast tempo are vital for the success of short films and sign language utilises these alot. I like the style of the narrative by the narrator style voice over with the person talking in the first person as if it is their life. This would add to the mise on scene of a documentary as well as the varied shots that would be needed such as wide pan and long tracking shots along with voiceovers giving the viewers the idea that they are actually watching a sad story when really the idea and narrative is extremely bizzarre and the audience feel sympathy for but at the same time a little humour at the expense of the main characetr or person in the documentary. Another good example of this is the louis Theroux dicumentaries in which he follows strange people and their lives on a day to daybasis. This idea is one that our group is going to run with and make a mocumentary about the boy who is scared of hands.

Borat is another kind of mockumentary, although it is a feature length film it displays many traits of a documentary but again it's theme is ridiculous that what makes it humorous and a mockumentary. The themes I am talking about are things such as interviews not only with members of the public but also with field experts which again conveys the realism that a mockumentary needs to work. Borat is played and written by Sascha Baron Cohen and is a news presenter from Kazahkstan. Our idea for our mockumentary is not as real or as drastic as this as ours will be loosely scripted whereas Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) completely improvises and plays his character as naturally as possible in hard situations and this is how acheives the humour of the film. Borat is a good example for another aspect of our film the poster ancillary task which I will talk about later on in my blog in another post.

The office is an award winning and successful mockumentary written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. It is renowned as the first of its kind, shot in a mockumentary style, creating characters that audiences can relate to whoever they may be. The style allows sililoquies that would not make sense in other shows, and can convey more about the character, as they can speak whilst alone. The office also contains conventions of a serious documentary, it features silent shots of the characters working within the environment adding to the mise en scene and verisimilitude. This style does add boundaries, for example, shot reverse shot cannot be used as continuity would not be relevant. It also creates high demand for the actors, as their characters must be as believable as possible when talking alone, and not always conversing with another character.

Friday, 9 July 2010

This year for our A2 syllabus as a group of three we have chosen to plan research and complete the making of a short film. To start off with i am going to look at some short films and analyse them to try and find out the tricks of the trade so to speak and how short films can become a success and what techniques maybe different to a feature length film.

Friday, 7 May 2010

There are several techniques and skills that I have learnt and developed whilst making this feature; whether it occurs in the Edit, acting performance, and most importantly, the planning.My Preliminary, I felt, was satisfactory. There were errors with continuity, the 180 degree rule, locations and Charlies ability to keep a straight face in some parts maybe due to his inexperience in acting on film . We filmed it over 2 days. Due to some lack of preparation we had to film in 2 different rooms which meant on entry the door colour had changed. This we attempted to hide in the edit with the use of slow motion and large font titles also we zoomed right in on the door handle to take the viewers attention away from the colour change and instead to the hand moving towards the handle. In several of our shots, equipment such as tripods can be seen in the background and even sometimes the foreground. In my original Preliminary edit I added background noise of the corridors in order to improve the verisimilitude through making the footsteps louder and adding a noise of a door closing. We also ensured Charlie wore the same clothes two days running in an attempt to maintain continuity; luckily his mistake in changing his shoes was not visible in the edit. We did, however, ensure suitable lighting when filming which meant good visibility. We had created a rough story board to which we stuck to closely, however no shooting script meant that we were relying on our edit to pull everything together. Looking back on this we should have had a better picture of what we wanted the final piece to look like and this could have helped us to cover and collect a wider array of shots to helping theediting process. If it was possible, I would certainly have planned in far more detail, the shots we were planning to use, and created and idea of how this would look in the edit.

I believe that as a group we underestimated the importance of planning, and the impact of our camera angles. For example the use of a low angle shot clearly contrasts between the fact of who has authority and power at the time. A tracking shot shows speed and tempo, all these techniques can produce the image of your character. This technique would have been effective in our piece as power is a regular theme within it. I think that the wide variety of camera angles we used was very unnecessary, and time consuming. It was essential that in the edit, however we had a wide selection of shots to choose though as I said before the more you have the better the edit can be.I felt that my edit was far more of an exploration of the techniques and devices available, it helped me learn about adobe premiere pro and learn tricks and skills that I eventually used than a meaningful sequence. There were several moments within the feature that I was happy with however. Although I struggled with the footsteps, which constantly sounded asynchronous to the image of Charlie walking; I was able to put the sound of the door opening perfectly synchronous to the image, when I finally found the correct sound on ‘freesound.org’.

When we began our real film, our enthusiasm gave us a confident idea as to how it was all going to plan out. Of course, we were wrong. We did plan a suitable time to film, making sure we were all free for the entire evening, leaving room for possible errors or re-filming. Our opening scene was set at night and so lighting was essential. We scheduled to film during a full moon, which meant for the best light possible. We also had several bright torches just in case. Our storyboards were detailed, as were our shooting script which we did stick to, though not completely so in our edit as we found a more suitable combination of shots. We had compiled a list of equipment and props to ensure that none of it was lost or missing. The camera had also been fully charged with spare batteries, in case of inevitable needs. During filming, we knew that sound and lighting were crucial micro elements. The little dialogue we had was recorded after filming, and then made synchronous to the image in the edit. We used torches, streetlights, and even car headlights to ensure a good visibility. Although the opening scene is still rather dark, I feel it adds to the mysteriousness of the situation. We filmed the indoor scenes at jack’s house. Changing the bed sheets and moving furniture to create the convincing mise en scene necessary for the film. We had planned our costumes, thinking about the image and impression we wished for our characters to give.

I felt that because of our far greater organisational skills, the filming went far smoother, and was far less stressful and time consuming.

We paid very close attention the continuity within our film. We constantly checked that our costumes were the same when reshooting from new angles, and also watched back over our footage to check again. Our main continuity problems occurred when filming n the high street. It was rather busy, and each shot would show a different car in the road. We also ensured that the positioning of our props was the same and even the way we held them. For example, when I take the gun out of the draw it was important to ensure it was held in the same hand, in the same way.

When we began our edit, we compiled a general collection of shots giving a very general view of how our film was going to plan out. From there we progressed to add effects, sound and better quality of lighting etc. Learning from last time, we felt it was important to create our range of shots first, creating a meaningful collection that we were proud of and understood; then fitting the non diagetic sound around it as the music was not the main focus. When choosing the music, we selected an original piece that we felt was fitting to our idea, and not the other way around. Unlike last time, I wanted the effects to be for a reason. We used dissolve to create a jump cut, it was taking the viewer on a journey but the shots flowed instead of being extremely sudden. Another effect we reused to a better effect was the changing of the speed. In the last film, i used slow motion when one man is walking down a corridor. I felt this dragged on, as it continued for around 1 minute. In the latest film we used slow motion when Jack is shot in the back of the head. This made the moment far more effective, as it contrasted to the obviously quick speed of a bullet.

I feel that my ideas were rather ambitious, within my storyline, and some of my camera angles could not be achieved without the professional equipment we don't have access to. Although I believe I have progressed very far with my filmmaking skills, I understand there is still a long way to go and there are also still many things I would choose to do differently in the future.

Thursday, 22 April 2010

We chose the name deadline as it not only refers to the prompt work that us as a group do but it is also original and we feel, is a suitable production name for our film. It fits with the efficient and structured life of an assassin. However, I felt that the title sting we created was rather cheesy due to the glowing colours and strange font styles. If I were to change it, I would have the text at a straighter angle; with a simple white on black. This would have stood out even better, and therefore had a better impact on the viewer. All big film companies have a name that is recognisable around the world and also a moving image and sound to fit with it. Take for example Universal, paramount pictures or 20th century fox all recognised round the world. A production company is the company who take the film idea and fund, plan and complete the making of the film right the way through to its eventual distribution. A distributor could be someone like Universal who will sell the film and the rights to show the film to cinemas all round the world. The money for a film of our level could come from the makers own pocket if it was very amateur or for other films of our genre funding could come from film companies and big Hollywood companies like universal who would be looking to make a profit and may only invest in products that are going to make one, so the safe genres that are tried and tested and have a good audience.A film distributor is an independent company, which acts as the final agent between a film production company, and a film exhibitor, to end of securing placement of the producer's film on the exhibitor’s screen. Possible distributors for our film may be television channels such as channel itv and itv2, this is because both channels distribute a lot of assassin types of films and because our film comes under this genre the distribution of our film into these programs would maximize viewings and popularity of our film which would increase the overall profit of our film. We would also distribute our film via media such as DVD’s which we would sell in DVD and video stores such as HMV for home viewing for our audience. This is where marketing would be a great help as it would spread the awareness of our film and make people want to see it.

Wednesday, 21 April 2010

Charlie played a hired assassin attempting to break free from his job and his past. He is a fully trained high action killer, but with a sensitive and thoughtful side which he attempts to hide with a tough exterior. As a group we believed that this character is similar to that of ‘Jason Bourne’ from ‘The bourne trilogy’, directed by Paul Greengrass. In many scenes he portrays excellent fighting abilities, high fitness and a wide interlect. Our stories are however very different. He attempts to stay alive, and learn more about his own identity. Charlie's character however wishes to escape and stop the killing, by changing his identity. We think that Jason Bourne is more of a high action killer, whereas our character is a sly and secretive type. Our attire is very different. Our character wears mainly black, possibly in order to blend in, but it also connotes a far more mysterious lifestlye. Jason Bourne wears far more normal clothing, whatever the situation. We also feel my character is rather like Mr. Orange from tarrantino’s Reservoir dogs. He is an undercover cop, attempting to infiltrate a gang in order to bring them down. His story is similar to Charlies character, attempting to bring . Charlie played a hired assassin attempting to break free from his job and his past. He is a fully trained high action killer, but with a sensitive and thoughtful side which he attempts to hide with a tough exterior. As a group we believed that this character is similar to that of ‘Jason Bourne’ from ‘The bourne trilogy’, directed by Paul Greengrass. In many scenes he portrays excellent fighting abilities, high fitness and a wide interlect. Our stories are however very different. He attempts to stay alive, and learn more about his own identity. Charlie's character however wishes to escape and stop the killing, by changing his identity. We think that Jason Bourne is more of a high action killer, whereas our character is a sly and secretive type. Our attire is very different. Our character wears mainly black, possibly in order to blend in, but it also connotes a far more mysterious lifestlye. Jason Bourne wears far more normal clothing, whatever the situation. We also feel my character is rather like Mr. Orange from tarrantino’s Reservoir dogs. He is an undercover cop, attempting to infiltrate a gang in order to bring them down. His story is similar to Charlies character, attempting to bring down the organisation from within. His character is aware that he must act as the criminals do, for the long term benefits; also similar to our character who must kill others in order to escape. down the organisation from within. His character is aware that he must act as the criminals do, for the long term benefits; also similar to our character who must kill others in order to escape.

Tuesday, 20 April 2010

Frame 1 - The use of a time code and black and white shade gives the effect of a CCTV camera. It symbolises the way that you are constantly being watched and can never really escape, it also cleverly shows our film is set in the modern day. It creates a sense of mystery that some viewers may be drawn to; creating retardation for the viewer that intrigues them to continue watching. This is also achieved in the way that the characters face is never shown.

Frame2 – this image shows a man who has been shot in the back of the head. The use of gore may be enjoyable for some viewers. This will of course affect the certificate of the film which may reduce our target audience. This image appears as a photograph, reflecting how in society today, everything is publicised. The use of black and white highlights how grim the murder was.

Frame 3 – Once again this creates an element of retardation. The fact that we don’t see her face is intriguing for the audience as is the fact that she has attractive legs. The low light adds to the mystery of the situation and her identity.

Frame 4 – The use of a bird’s eye view shows that everything is on top of this man. Like a ‘weight on his shoulders’. It also shows how much work he has to do. The use of a suit makes the man seem authoritive; this creates an even greater impact when he is assassinated, as we wonders what possible lengths the assassin actions could go, and the possible problems he may have caused.

Frame 5 – This image of a man turning his head shows his need to be constantly on the defensive, as who knows who could be behind you. Certainly as we find out later on, he was right to be paranoid. The use of low lighting reduces visibility and therefore maintains the tension within the sequence.

Frame 6 – The fact that the assassin appears from behind the man highlights the secretive nature of the assassin. Once again the constant low light raises the tension. The zip on his coat is done up connoting his need to hide something. His head is bowed to show his need to hide his face.

Frame 7 – this frame shows the assassin lying down on a very neutral looking bed in a very neutral looking room. This highlights the plain and simplified lifestyle he must lead in order to hide his identity. He is lying with his eyes closed to reflect his constant fatigue. In the background there is a photo of the assassin and a woman. This adds an element of retardation, as the viewer wonder the details of their relationship. He is staring up to the ceiling, showing his depth of thought, and the viewer can only imagine the thoughts, feelings and experiences of the assassin.

Frame 8 – This frame pictures the assassins’ bedside table, a photo of the assassin and a woman. We then clearly see a handgun in the top draw. This denotes action and violence to occur later on in the feature. Having just murdered a man already, this shows the relentless work of an assassin. The use of a lamp behind the photo frame symbolically places the assassin ‘in the dark’.

Frame 9 – the use of a close up on the frame allows the audience to recognise the past life of the assassin and they can only assume this relationship has deteriorated due to his work. The Assassin can be seen leaving the room in a reflection of the frame, showing him staring at the photo. This once again adds to depth to the emotion of the assassin. A title appears, ‘killers Escape’. The use of simple font and colour, is easy to notice for the viewer.

Sunday, 18 April 2010

We have been given some feedback from a test audience who watched our film. We were given a summary of what people thought, which said:

"Good storyline. Murder was horrible but effective. Would like to watch on to find out what happens because it isn’t clear from the beginning (although it’s a bit confusing this isn’t a problem and makes you want to watch more). It’s a bit dark at the start."

We know our storyline is not clear from the beginning but this is meant to draw people in to want to find out more and all will be revealed later in the film. The sound effect for the murder is quite grusome and we had to reduce the volume because it was even worse at first. We are not really happy with our final film so it is good to find out the audience want to watch more.

Sunday, 21 March 2010

Deadline, we feel, is a suitable production name for our film. It fits with the efficient and structured life of an assassin. However, i felt that the sequence we created was rather cheesy due to the glowing colours and strange font styles. If I were to change it, I would have the text at a straighter angle; with a simple white on black. This would have stood out even better, and therefore had a better impact on the viewer.

Killers escape is a blunt title, imediately it describes exactly what the film is about. The word killer mayattract an audience, and the word escape allows them to recognise a diffetrent type of killer, giving the film a different edge. This technique is similar to :

Friday, 12 March 2010

Scene 1 - This scene was set in our local high street. We filmed at night in order to have the lighting element reinforcing the mysterious and secretive element of our film. We decided that the character should wear jeans and a hoodie in order to portray the image of a simple man. the hood connotes the need to hide his identity. The car we also used is appropriate to the age of the character increasing the verisimilitude. The womans outfit consisted of a short but formal skirt ensuring the sense of efficiency within her job. She also wears a headscarf, once again to hide her true identity.

Scene 2 - the shirt, tie, and troulsers the man wears presents him as authoritive and important. He is also surrounded by papers by a computer connoting the fact that he is a busy man. Once again we had low light to raise the tension, and portray the correct time of day. The assassin wore a coat with the zip done up as well as the colour, conveying his secretive nature, it also shows him to be protective and he refuses to allow other people to come in to his life.

Scene 3 - The assassin wears neutral colours to show his lack of personality and identity. The colour black is also recognised as the colour of mourning, showing the regret he feels towards the people he kills. The lighting is bright contrasting to other scenes showing his vulnerability as he can clearly be seen. The plain sheets and furniture show the efficient and minimalistic lifestyle he leads, due to the high action murder that occurs on the other side of his life.

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

Jess Lax (Mysterious Assasin)- When thinking of the idea for our film and scripting the opening we had the look in mind for our women assasin. We were looking for someone who could pull of a mysterious look preferably with a fringe to cover the eyes and someone who had has some acting experience. Jess having been in all the school productions and being my girlfriend too was an easy option to rope in for the filming process. The costume we thought of a month ago when starting the concept phase as a group was her in a black dress and heels (the heels are important as her feet are planned to be in full shot for a substantial time of the shot including her). Another aspect of her outfit is the neckscarf we have chosen to add to the effect of her mysterious personaliy as it is the film opening we are hoping to create some retardation as to Jess's characters act and presence in the film.

Jake Seymour (Business Man)- Jake again is one of our friends and is up for volunteering to play a part in our opening. he has less acting experience than Jess but is playing an easier part. He is working late night in his home office and hears a bang at the door when he looks out the door comes back to realist that his tea is vibrating suggesting movement in the room he then steps forward to reveal the main character Charlie the Assasin. Jakes outfit is meant to represent his destress at the situation but still keeping in mind the verisimilitude of him being a businessman. His open collar shirt will give the image that he is working out of hours.

Charlie Rix (The Assasin)- Charlie is an extremely good actor and him being in our group is a real plus side. He is going to play the main assasin and me and George have full confidence in him making the part beliavable. His costume and gun are obviously very important for the versimilitude of the film. The gun we are going to borrow from our friend and is a BB gun but very realistic especilly when you are not to close up to it. And Charlie is going to wear a biege zip up jacket done all the way up with his colllar up to boost his secretive personality and to almost replicate a football hooligans violence. The rest of his outfit for our opening is just going to be a black pair of jeans and black shoes to try and represent as best we can an assasin and his mysterious start to the film as a character.

Jack Reynolds (Victim in the car)- My character is a lowlife and is going to be represented in this way with a hoody and jeans etc his hair is going to be out of place and he should act as if he knows he has donr something which may come back on him at night ( and it does in the dark car park).

Tuesday, 9 March 2010

Our opening scene is filmed outside. We felt it necessary to ensure the best visibility possible, and therefore waited to film during the fullest moon possible, and a clear sky. This would certasinly improve the quality of our footage. This was our weather forecast, on the night of our filming. The moon was rather full which meant reasonable light. However we did find it necessary to use our torches and car headlights. Furthermore, the slight drizzle that occured meant we needed to ensure our equipment, costumes and props were all kept dry.

Monday, 8 March 2010

The picture shown above is a picture of the alley at Friday’s cross in ringwood which we will be using for the first scene.

The car park nearby to Kingsbury road, the road the alley is on, is where we are parking the car and filming the second part of the first scene. It is perferct for us as will be quiet and we will have the chance to introduce the verisimilutde of it being very late at night.

Friday, 5 March 2010

Our Animatic came out well in my opinion. It is our storyboard hence showing lots of the shots that made our final cut of our film opening. Also it has the same soundtrack though it's edited slightly different in our animatic to our actual film opening. A clever technique we used to give our animatic the edge over other peoples was not only using our soundtrack over the top but the use of video transitions on premiere pro represented some of the movement in our film opening. Examples of thie is the picture from outside the car zooming into a shoot from inside the car. This rpresentation of movement helped to improve our animatics validity as instead of just being a slideshow of our pictures it helped to remind us of some of the movement ideas we wanted in our film opening and also, although of less importance, helps to keep the viewer interested in our animatic. Another effect used in our animatic to represent movement was the wobble effect on the picture of the window. Although this shot didn't make the final cut of our opening it was intended to represent the wind and thus the window now being open. All in all I was very impressed with our animatic and think that it helped us keep in mind our shots we needed when filming.

Thursday, 11 February 2010

Kill Bill- It begins with a close up on Uma therman, We see she has cuts on her face which connotes her pain. It is in black and white which, i feel makes it very sinister. The lack of variety in the shots is of course a classic trait of Quentin Tarantino but also adds to the build of tension. The sudden cut to a tracking shot of a mans shoes, allows the audience to recognise the presence of someone else. We then cut back to the close up on the woman, She breathes deeply to show distress. the man strokes her face, he holds a hankey clearly saying 'bill'. this links to the title and the viewer now has a better idea as to who and what 'bill' is like. The fact that we never see Bills face adds an element of retardation for the viewer, this being once again farmiliar within the work of tarantino. The lack of non - diagetic sound Also raises the tension, but also gives the sense that the viewer is involved and present at the time. The woman Begins to shake her head desparately, and faintly say 'no'. clearly she is welled with fear. The viewer is completely unaware as to why until the loud gunshot which clearly connotes a gunshot to the head. However this is not clear due to the quick fade to black and intro to the fast pace non - diagetic sound, and a bold white on Black title saying 'A Quentin Tarantino Film.'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyR4RK0LA_E

Reservoir Dogs - The sequence continues with a constsnt tracking shot that constantly circles the group sat at the table. the viewer clearly sees the men wearing black suits instantly recognising them as 'businessmen'. The constant movement of the camera reflects the constant chat between the men; The way he camera cuts to the same shot from dofferent angles represents the different angles in which the men enter the conversation. When the camera finally stop it shows the halt in the conversation as it changes subject. Within this opening sequence there is no non - diagetic sound which raises the tension and improves the verisimilitude vastly. The Mise en scene is created to look like it's set in the past which seems to make it timeless, as we never really know which time frame it is set in.

TAKEN - The theme of the film Taken has similar ideas to that of our film in that it is based on an assassin, however in this case, the assassin is already retired. I like the idea of the start being a memory/dream sequence as when occampanied with the piano it becomes clear to the audience that it is a meloncholy thought and that he longs for the moment to occur again. I also have always liked the start location of the dark bedroom as it suggests loneliness and vulnerability which could be a key theme within our film. The focus on the picture on the bedside table is effective, a technique thatwe have also used in order to portraywhatthe character longs for.

The first scene of lucky number slevin is great for setting the scene and is necessary to refer back to later in the film. It doesn’t directly introduce the main characters but gets the audience thinking, creating a slight retardation. This is the kind of start I think would be good for our film as it the same genre and allows for twists to unfold as the film progresses. the use of a tracking shot of the man with the accounts draws attention to the accounts and looks fantastic. The following sequence is equally good as you see the action of the deaths but don’t see the face of the man and therefore are still in the dark as to who did it and why once again creating retardation. The title credits are also good as they relate to the movie and look aesthetic.appealing more to the viewer. The continuity is appropriate and mise on scene creates a convincing verisimilitude, with use of bland colours creating a sinister vibeand raising the tension, due to the lack of dialogue.

Wednesday, 10 February 2010

Whilst coming up with the idea for our film. We had to bear in mind the audience that we thought the film would appealt and make sure we taylored the thems to their needs. Our intended audience was males above 15 years of age. Our film is similar to the Bourne films and has similar violence and adult films to Guy Ritchie productions like Snatch and Lock Stock and these films have already been successful with this audience. We felt that not only males would watch it though, in the cinema males may take their partners or possible partners to watch it as it would be their choice of film if they were paying and also it may be seen as a good gift to buy husbands, boyfriends or even sons when it came to DVD and Bluray for birthdays and Christmas.

Monday, 8 February 2010

A man wakes up alone in an unknown place. He wakes up in a hospital bed, the hospital is empty. He starts to panic and then sees on a security camera screen that there is a woman looking at the same screen. He gets up and looks behind him where there is a camera pointing at him then the camera talks to him and says “you are here for your own safety do not attempt to leave.” The screen then goes blurry and turns to the girl looking at him and she says “your not safe here leave” she is tied to a chair. As she says leave the camera cuts out. Finds various things in the hospital which point to his way of escaping he then finds the girl and takes her with him as they approach what he thinks is an exit she says in the voice of the camera I told you not to leave and locks him in a room. Throughout the film there are flashbacks of his life in which he never does what people tell him.

Target audience: 15 and above not a family film.

The general idea of a man being trapped in a hospital trying to escape is good however in order to film this we would need the setting and mise-en-scene to represent a hospital, which would be very hard to do in order to keep the verismilitude constant. It would be hard to find a building to use which would create the desired effect. The storyline is also hazy as we were didn’t put much thought into it.

Pitch 2.

5 magazine geeks love superheroes, one gets into a fight by having a light sabre fight and accidentally hitting someone’s girlfriend. He then gets in a fight with a jock. And him and his loser friends deck him with their geeky moves, they decide to become superheroes. Meanwhile they hate gym class and they have a very horrible teacher called Jim Peak who turns out to be dating one of the guys’ mums. They have homemade outfits and look ridiculous and the plot involves them separating the gym teacher and the guys mum.

Genre: comedy

Target audience: 12/15 as some mature themes

Good idea, potential for a good film. Only problem is that comedy is hard to get right and could end up looking bad due to not being funny. I think it would be easier and look better to do a serious opening.

Our last film pitch we are going to use therefore we developed in further detail.

Set in modern day, a world class assassin has a job to kill a woman. He does so but feels remorse and finally decides to get out. He tells his boss who isn’t happy, then after leaving he is attacked by a group of men hired to kill him. He thinks his boss is behind it and whilst trying to get away he plans to kill him. Meanwhile another assassin is around but her story is unclear. She is employed to kill him but they get together and she helps him find the boss. After confronting him, the assassin realises it isn’t the boss trying to kill him and is told that the partner of the woman he killed at the beginning is behind it. The partner ends up coming face to face with the assassin who won’t fight him and drops his guard and he ends up being killed by the female assassin who is the person who is actually related to the original death – twist that the man is a decoy.

Act 1: Assassin kills woman and resigns. Gets followed and attacked. Meanwhile another man is killed by the female assassin to set the scene.

Act 2: Main character is attacked by female assassin, end up sleeping together, builds trust. Female helps him get to boss, boss tells him who it really is whilst dying. Goes out to meet him.

Unique selling point: This film will sell because it is action packed but also has themes such as romance and betrayal, therefore there is a wide audience range. It is also tense and the overall finale is unclear but after a few twists the story comes together. This type of film draws the audiences’ attention because they need to concentrate to follow the story but also have the action scenes which are simple and entertaining to watch.

Starting to come up with a rough isea of what our film was going to be like was easy as we did 4 pitches then devloping one into the final one that we would actually work on. Our mood board was used to portray feelings emotions and even some of the outline of the story of our film. Starting with the pictures which on the whole portray the violence and death aspect of our Assasins' Escape opening. Two pictures which reflect this very well are the one near the centre of the man holding the gun and pointing it towards you as you look at the board but also the one of the black man who is about to commit suicide. Not only does this obviously portay death but the person looking at it could connote a sense of the man feeling trapped or even lonely. This is the same feelings as our assasin feels. He is "trapped" by his job. Another picture which reflects this well is the one of a man blindfolded showing our assasin to be in a dangerous position and very vulnerable because of it. Other pictures mainly of cars or men or targets obviously all portraying the life of the assasin the men shown are also smartly dresed as our assasin will be. One other picture which is very prominent and is good to have due to the story of our opening is the one of the beautiful women with the hat on. Dressed in black she looks sexy which obviously will appeal to people along with the low cut top. But above all she represents the woman in our film who's identity remains unknown

Sunday, 7 February 2010

Kill Bill is another assassin film of the same genre and has lots of themes and the same level of violence and gore in it's opening as we as a group hope to portray in our opening. The scene is typical for Tarentino with a small variety of shots of different lengths and actions but is straight away making the viewer feel tense and start guessing at what is happening. The character played by Uma Thurman appears to be in a wedding dress and has lots of cuts, grazes and bruises on her face. The close up of her face stays in shot when footsteps are heard and the tension rises as audience start asking who is it and what's goinmg to happen? As you hear the mans voice who talks in a a sadistic way and as he wipes the blood off her face the audience is introduced to his name. The name "Bill" is clearly stitched into the handkerchief and although we know his name we never see his face and this element of retardation is a similar theme to what we are hoping for in our film as the audience should be asking lots of questions to encourage them to watch on and found out the plot. The scene goes on to show more fear in the womens face asnd as we found out later this was due to her being held at gun point by Bill a gunshot is then heard and from that the audience connote a shot to the head. Though this is hard to say and the audience because of this is puzzled as to whether or not she was actually shot as the shot quickly cuts to a black screen with "A Quentin Tarantino Film" written on it.

Saturday, 6 February 2010

I have chosen to write about this opening scene not because it is like the film opening that we are going to do as deadline productions but because it is very informative and effective in only 1 minute and 35 seconds. The first shot is of them running down a busy high street and straight away the audience connotes from this that they are crimnals and are stealing something from a shop it then only take a few seconds for the shot to cut to the reason why they are stealing. It shows Renton the main character and the one that is doing the voice over smoking drugs in a dingy low lit flat. So already in about 30 seconds we know that they steal to fuel their habit for drugs. And it is evident that they have no respect for their health as Renton simply rolls over the car bonnet as if nothing as happened aswell as taking drugs.

The opening is clever in how it opens the audience uo not only the characters names but also a bit of their personality. Firstly it shows the contrasting attitudes in apparel towards football fristly showing the "gang" of friends in just what they had been wearing in the day before showing the 5 a side team in a proper matching kit. The first character after Renton is then introduced through captions as Sick Boy. He is showing fouling someone badly by not really mking any effort to get to the ball before protesting his innocence this could show his character as both lazy and as if he doesn't take the blame for anything. Next to be introduced in a similar way is Begbie he tackles someone very dangerously and violently from behind again not getting the ball. Though his reaction of subdued calmness could sho him to be slightly mad and twisted if he could be this violent without showing remorse. Next come Spud who immediately in my opinion looks extremely dopey and slow. He is wearing what looks like boxer shorts or similarly short shorts and some form of glves other than those for being a goalkeeper. His skill portrays this image of him also as he kind of gingerly jogs backwards before sort of skipping in a gesture to stop the ball where in reality he never has a chance and lets a goal in to a fairly tame shot. His movement as he goes to pick the ball out of his net show him to be very uncoordinated and almost uncmfortable being under the pressure of being in goal and having every one shout at himThe next little clip shows some relatively young women with babies watching and cheering the group on. This suggests that they are ther halfs and girlfriends and that some of these drug addicts are fathers to young children. Next to be introduced out of the group is Tommy and it is very interesting how he is introduced. they show him on the ball looking for support to pass to as if he actually wants to play football properly it could also be a comparison to the way in which he is looking for support from the others throughout the film. As I have seen this film I know that Tommy doesn't take drugs and looking back on it this is suggested right from the start in the way in which out of all of his team he is the only one no only playing football properly or atleast trying to but also he is wearing a headband and even though it is a tiny gesture it is still a gesture towards some sort of sporting ability. Finally the way in which Renton gets hit in the head with the ball and falling over mixes with the shot of him falling over due to drugs suggests that their life is controlled by their drug habit. The music is very important for this opening aswell it is up beat and the voice of the singer almost relates the characters in Rentons gang.

All in all this opening is effective as it introduces the main characters and a bit of their personality and also a bit of the storyline due to the need for drugs from the characters.

Friday, 8 January 2010

The very first stage of our preliminary exercise was to come with an idea and a script that followed the brief that we were given. The brief was that we had to have someone walk through a door and across a room before sitting down and having a short dialogue with one other person. Bearing this in mind we made our script complete with stage directions and dialogue.CHARLIE is walking down the corridor holding a bag. He opens a door and goes into a room where GEORGE is sitting facing the door. GEORGE is anxious. CHARLIE puts the bag on a table and sits opposite the man.GeorgeIs that it?CharlieIts all there.GeorgeWhat about the girl?CharLIEIts all there.After a long pause CHARLIE stands and leaves the room, GEORGE is left staring at the bag.

Our script was fairly basic and once the dialogue had been learned the script was not really needed as the stage directions were also fairly basic. We also constructed a storyboard which was very useful and was used between and during every scene to try and check that everything was going to work correctly. It held information such as camera movements and angles along with pictures of what the scena should ideally look like. It also helped us to keep track of the shots that we still needed to shoot which reduced the need to use the play feature on the camera and in turn reduced the risk of recording over shots or leaving big gaps on the tape by breaking the time code.

The first of our problems came when we started the actual filming process. For a start we had to chose where to film in school and as we needed a long corridor upstairs in the main block seemed a good place. Though as on the first day of filming we only had time to shoot the opening scenes where charlie was walking along the corridor with the bag we forgot the door we shot him walking towards may not be an option to use when we came to film the second time round. As it turned out we were right and had to change the door we used from a red one to a blue one and were worried about the continuity being lost as this sounds like a drastic change. Though it is not too apparent that the red one was infact the door he was walking toward and as you can't see the wall in the close up of the handle shot we got away with using a different door in a different corridor.

Some rules we had to always keep in mind were ones such as the 180 degree rule in which the two actors in dialogue must stay on the side that they are first introduced unless the camera is shown to move across the line and therefore reestablish the line of 180 degrees. As the classroom we used was relatively small and the brief had asked us to have charlie walk across the room we chose to make the dialogue take place in the corner of the room so we had no chance of breaking the 180 degree rule. This in turn also helped to include our shot reverse shot which was also asked for in the brief.

As we moved throught he filming process we realised that we had not used the audio microphone to catch the dialogue more clearly this led to us having to be careful when it came to editing the piece together as I had to either use all the clips of film from where we didn't use the microphone or use all the bits of when we did otherwise the sound would have drastically changed in volume between lines which would have sounded wrong.

Another aspect of sound that really didnt work when I had finished editing my piece was the footsteps of Charlie walking down the hallway. I had found sounds of footsteps on freesound.org and changed the speed and volume of them using the effect controls though I think I rushed it and when I looked at my finished piece the footstep sound was out of time with the actual movement of Charlies feet. This obviously doesn't help the verisimiltud eof the piece nor does it help with the match on action aspect of our piece. Looking back on it I would have just recorded Charlies actual footsteps using a microphone and this should have matched if he walked in the same strides in the clip.

The editing part of the process was the hardest by far in my opinion though I also learnt alot of tricks on how to use the programme. Generally when shooting it, so long as the acting and dialogue was learnt and done well, the scenes were shot quite quickly. It was only due to the discussions that me Charlie and George had about whether to stick to our storyboard or to change something and the time consumed by setting up the cameras and checking the angles that took the time and meant that it took us around four lessons to get all the footage from all the angles that we wanted to allow us as much footage as possible to come up with a good edit. Towards the end it was evident in the final piece that we had started to rush the setting up aspect as things such as the tripod and our script were visible in the shot. This was at the end of the day a preliminary exercise and was there to learn from and I think as a group we did learn a lot all the way from preperation strategies to editing and what little tricks and effects are available on premierpro.

During the shooting process one aspest that not only our group learnt about from making mistakes at is not to rewind and watch every piece of film after filming as you are always running the risk of losing the time code and in turn leaving big gaps on your tape. Now this wasn't too bigger problem in this exercise though when it comes to filming our opening scene of our film it could be. If we lost too much tape then we might not have enough space to record all the footage needed. It can also make editing slot more time consuming as it can be very difficult to find some of the footage and in this exercise we actuall lost some pieces through doing this.

All in all this was a good exercise to do to learn alot about the process of making even a 2 minute short clip. Me George and Charlie have talked about things we would and wouldn't do if we had the chance and because of this I think we will be alot more educated when it comes to shooting and editing our film opening.